» lt is easy to say, "it makes us massive 40 times, we all map what we on the emotions of the golden hour: Previous
lden hour: Previous page
feel good", but why should this
be so? And, can knowing why
help make our photographs of
these special moments more
compelling or engaging?
Getting Emotional
When I look at a sunrise or sunset,
either in the rea I world or in a
photograph, I usually feel calmness
and tranquillity as well as awe at the
beauty of the natural world. At its
rawest level, physics provides us with a
stunning spectacle. I'll say more about
that later, but our interpretation of the
scene is based on much more than
just the colour of the light, the shapes,
form and textures and so on. Our
minds colour the scene with our own
emotional associations. I am interested
in these emoti onal responses. Are they
shared among us?
lt is a surprising fact that, despite
the number of colour-sensitive cones
in human retinas varying by up to a
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see to more-or-less the same colours;
maybe, not exactly, but remarkably
close. This implies that some kind of
correct ion is going on in the brain
and that a shared colour perception
based on collective experience of the
world around us has been arrived
at in our common conscience.
So, if colour is seen the same, is
it felt the same? What emotions are
evoked in us at dawn and dusk? Do
we all feel the same emotions? And is
this learned or innate? To make further
sense of this, I contacted Professor
John Suler of Rider University in
the USA, whose fascinating online
book, 'Photographic Psychology:
Image and Psyche' www.users.rider.
edu/-sulerlphotopsy explores the
psychology of photography. As well
as being a professor of psychology,
John is a highly accomplished
photographer and has written
extensively about where the two
disciplines meet. He shed some light
"Although cultural beliefs no doubt Sunrise at Victoria Falls, Zi mbabwe
affect how we think and feel about Nikon 03, 24-?0mm lens@ 24mm
sunrises and sunsets, I am sure that f/ 13, 1/ SOsec, ISO 200
at least some of our percepti ons of Above
these events are inborn or innate, due Bellowing st ag at sunrise
to the fact that humans have been Nikon D3X
experiencing sunrises and sunsets Nikon 600mm f/4 & 1.4 TC
forever. Our eyes have evolved to f/ 5.6, 1/ 800 sec, ISO 400
deal with how light changes between Right
sunny and dark (i.e. cones and rods), lmpala at sunset, Botswana
so why not also our minds"? Nikon 03
He explains further that the feelings Nikon 600mmf/4& 1.7 TC
we have about sunrise and sunset f/ 7.1, 1/ 200sec, ISO 3,200
are Iinked to the larger cycles of life:
"The cycl es of day and night,
beginning and end, opportunity and
end, are analogous. Some would
say that buried deep within our
collective unconsci ous lie ancient
memories of returning to the cave, to
safety, warmth, and family, as the sun
disappears below the horizon. The
uncertainty and possible dangers of
night approach. After the darkness,
the sun rises once again, bringing »
 TERRA FAUNA • PSYCHO SUNRISE
» the promises and challenges of a new day to life".
So dawn and dusk are transitions between night
and day and therefore remind us of the emoti onal
associations we have with darkness and light.
Because we are diurnal animals, living our lives in the
light of the day, our poor night vision shapes our perception
of day versus night. Perhaps, because these transition times
of day are fleeting, they evoke powerfully concentrated
emotions, reminding us how much happier we are with
the light of daytime. When this light is extinguished after
sunset, the darkness crowds us with possible danger: the
unknown threat of every shadow and unseen sound.
With this in mind, it is easy to see how sunrise can be
associated with a new beginning: the birth of a new day,
hope and a return to control, reason and normality. The
tide of light floods back into the world, chasing away the
fears of the previous night's darkness, and offering up
opportunity for the new day. The positive associations
we have with light are many. Throughout human history
we have looked up to the sun as provider of light, heat,
happiness and even deified it as a god. After all, without
the sun, pretty much everything on earth would die.
Similarly, sunset is a metaphor for an ending:
a time for winding down, returning to calm and
homely warmth and safety before the creatures
of the night emerg e as the light ebbs away.
And the following morning, the sun rises
again, repeating the cycle: the celestial
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clock ticks. The solar heart beats.
To return to the question of whether we all feel the same
emotions when we see a sunrise or sunset: there are many
and various subconscious associations we apply when
interpreting these glorious ephemeral moments between
day and night. My opinion is, that between us, there
are likely to be a mix of shared and individually unique
emotions and I should be interested in your feedback.
And does this new understanding make our
photographs more compelling and engaging? I
like to think that anything in which we attempt to
have a deeper knowledge, translates into better
photography. The more we know, the better the
connecti on between us and the image.
Below · Quartering short-eared owl at sunset
Nikon 03 & Nikon 600mm f/4
f/4, 1/2000sec, ISO 640
Below right · Angry clouds in France
Nikon 03 & Nikon 20mm
f/ 8, 1/ 13sec, ISO 200, -0.7 EV
Colou r Psychology
Considering the associations we have with the transiti on
times of sunrise and sunset, it is worth saying something
about the psychology behind the colours themselves
during the golden hour.
"Golden" is not really a good description because gold is
only one form of this beautiful light. In general, the colours
we are seeing are at the warmer end of the spectrum,
associated with comfort and a warm feeling of happiness.
Orange is a colour with energy and
excitement, warmth and enthusiasm.
Yellow is the colour of cheerfulness, the colour
we associate usually with the sun itself (even
though the sun actually emits white light).
Pink is a lighter tint of red and is
tranquil, calming and romantic.
Red is lively, energetic, stimulating, urgent,
angry even. lt certainly commands attention.
Occasionally I have looked at a parti cularly red sunset
and thought the Marti ans had finally made their minds up
to take a swing at us; Mars: the red planet, bringer of war.
And indeed, ifthere are dark, dramatic clouds involved, the
scene can be pretty threatening as well as exhilarating.
On holiday in France last year my daughter and I
rushed outside to experience a huge thunder storm that
had boiled up one evening. The light was bright red-
orange and the clouds roiled and crackled with lightning.
Along with the colossal noise and electric charge in
the air, the intense colours contributed to a feeling that
we were about to be smitten down at any moment.
But usually we are seeing oranges, orange reds and
golden yellow in the sky, which results in a sense of
optimistic, non-threatening wellbeing: happy colours.
Combining these colour emoti ons with those associated
with the transition times of sunrise and sunset discussed
earlier, it is not surprising they inspire our awe.
The Physi cs
Pure sunlight is white and is made up of all the colours
of visible light (the colours of the rainbow) combined
together. This full spectrum white light is what we see on a
bright, sunny day at midday.
The reason we see non-white, warmer sunlight at dawn
and dusk is that not all of the colours which start out at
the sun are getting through to our eyes. At sun-up and
sun-down, those warm reds, oranges, pinks and yellows
in the sky are coming to us after some of the greens, blues
and violets have become lost somewhere on the way.
Have you ever noticed the stars twinkling? I used to
think I was witnessing some distant violent spinning
star, spitting out multi coloured coruscations, or an alien
spaceship signalling across the void. I was disappointed,
although intrigued, to discover that the steady, pure
white starlight was being modified by the atmosphere
only in the last littl e bit of its journey to earth. The light
is bent about randomly and repeatedly when travelling »
» through the varying densities of matter that makes up the
atmosphere. This bending process is called refraction.
Because the atmosphere is turbulent and fluctuates
in density all the time, the refraction process bends the
light random ly in different ways so that the starlight does
not come to our eyes in a constant, direct stream. The
result is a varying of the intensity of light over time and
the stars appear to twinkle, which is known as" stellar
scintillation". If the atmosphere can make the light of a
distant star appear to wobble, it is not surprising that
it can have a much larger effect, albeit via a different
process, on our own star, the sun, which is much closer.
When the midday sun is directly overhead, the
pure white light punches down through the earth's
atmosphere to reach us. In general, the colour of this
light is not modifi ed that much. In comparison, at sunrise
and sunset, by definition, the sun's position in the sky
is very low on the horizon. The sun is still sending us
pure white light, but this light is travelling much further,
sideways if you like, through the earth's atmosphere
before it reaches us. The more atmosphere the light has
to travel through, the more of a colour shift we observe.
Because the sun is much closer to us than the
other stars, sunlight is less affected by the refraction
process that makes stars twinkle. But it can be modified
dramatically by a process called Rayleigh scattering,
where light is absorbed by gas molecules in the
atmosphere and radiated off in different directions.
Not only that, but the scattering is progressively
more pronounced towards the blue/violet end of the
spectrum. So, the more these cooler colours become
scattered, the greater the visible warming effect we'll
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perceive, because what is left are the warmer reds,
oranges, pinks and yellows that are unaffected largely
by the gas molecules and pass straight through.
The most vivid sunrises and sunsets happen when
there are larger particles in the atmosphere, such as dust
and water. Light gets bounced off the surface of these
particles in the sky around the sun, including the warm
colours, and this spreads the light out to a wider area of the
sky. The cooler wavelengths are then Rayleigh scattered
on the way to our eyes, leaving only the warm light.
Dawn and dusk colours actually can be quite variable.
The hues left over after scattering are dependent on
the type, composition, size, colour and other properties
of the matter doing the scattering. Volcanic dust,
man-made pollution, water vapour, ice crystals, soot,
salt and pollen are some of the almost endless list of
atmospheric soup ingredients; not to mention the air
itself, which is mainly nitrogen and oxygen molecules. »
Below · Elephant sunset, Botswana
Nikon 03
Nikon 24-70mm lens @ 70mm
f/ 10, 1/ 320sec, ISO 200
Right • lone crow on a pylon at sunset
Canon SD
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l @400mm
f/ 5.6, 1/40sec, ISO 800
» By the way, the reason the sky is blue during the
day is because of all the blue light that is scattered up
in the atmosphere. We get the white daylight directly
from the sun, but also see the blue light in the sky
that has been scattered indirectly in all directions. lt is
scattered everywhere, but is more obvious overhead.
But just a minute, violet is the shortest visible
wavelength and therefore is scattered even more than
blue, so why is the sky not violet? Actually, the sky is violet
as well as blue, but the three types of colour-sensing cones
in our retinas overlap somewhat in the way they reg ister
colours. For some colour combinations a third colour
is perceived when more than one cone type registers
colours together. lt just so happens that we perceive a
blue and violet combination as blue and white without the
violet, effectively just blue. So the next time a child asks,
"why is the sky blue", you can blind them with science.
The animal kingdom has several different adaptations
to seeing colour, probably to do with different
evolution strategies. We are trichromats, meaning
we have three types of colour sensing cones in the
retina. Many primates share our trichromacy, whereas
most other mammals are dichromats and see the
world with only two types of cone receptors. For good
measure, there are plenty of animals that have other
arrangements of two, three or even four types of cones,
with the latter also responsive to ultraviolet light.
Undoubtedly, animals with different colour
perception are unlikely to see colours the same way
as we do and probably do not see a blue sky, either.
Who knows what a tetra chromatic zebra
finch sees when it looks up to the heavens?
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Golden Rules
And last, but not least, I'll say something about how to
get the best out of photographing a landscape or wildlife
scene, or preferably both, at this magical time of day.
lt goes almost without saying that you will need
sturdy tripod support for the camera. The ambient
light level is usually a lot lower at dawn and dusk and
therefore long shutter speeds are the norm. However,
if you are shooting a siIhouette, the sky is likely to be
bright and, as long as you meter for the lightest part,
avoiding the sun itself, you should be able to throw
the landscape and any wildlife into silhouette while
keeping relatively high shutter speeds, perhaps enough
to avoid a tripod. Actually, there is a serious point to
this: if I go out walking on the hills, I am happy to take
a good camera and lens, but usually I am loath to carry
a sturdy tripod unless I have gone out specifically to
photograph rather than just enjoy the walk. If you can
get a decent shutter speed, you do not need a tripod.
Also, not every landscape picture should be taken at
extreme depths of field. l find often that an aperture of
f/8 is absolutely fine, or even wider sometimes. lt depends
on the situation, but if it allows you to increase the
shutter speed with an acceptable ISO, then it is an option.
Indeed, for many wildlife pictures, it is pleasing to blur the
background, so wider apertures of f/5.6 or f/4 can work well.
As for metering, multi -segment will work for a lot of
images, but if you want to take control and if it has one,
put the camera in spot meter mode. This allows you to get
an exact meter reading off the sky, which is the important
feature. If you need to focus on a point that is different to
the metering point, you can put the camera in aperture
-
... ~ . .
.
~- ~
. , , _ ...
-
___ --- ....... --·-
.
priority mode, spot meter, and make a note of the Undoubtedly, animals with
shutter speed and aperture required. Then switch
to manual and dial in those settings, focusing on
different colour perception are
a different point in the image. Or you can do it the unlikely to see colours the same
other way round: focus where you need to, put way as we do and probably do
the lens or camera into manual focus mode and
then take a meter read ing from a separate point. not see a blue sky, either
For ultimate quality, ISO should be kept
relatively low to avoid noise spoiling the image,
but digital cameras have come such a long way
that this is much less of a problem than it used to
be. However, digital noise accumulates all the time
the shutter is open, so if you are going for very
long exposures, it is best to avoid the higher end
of your camera's ISO range. If you are shooting
film, all you will have to worry about is film
grain. Grain does not change over the exposure.
Digital sensors have a distinct disadvantage for
extremely long shutter speeds of several minutes
or tens of minutes, as noise piles upon noise.
Another consideration for digital shooters is
that the farther away from your camera's happy
range of ISO, the more the dynamic range falls
off. So pushing the ISO high will record less
subtle tonal detail as well as more noise.
If you have ever fiddled around with a digital
camera's noise settings, you may have come
across one that allows the camera to remove noise
during the shoot. lt will be called something like Above· Oystercatchers
'Long Exposure Noise Reduction'. I recommend Solway Firth mudflats
turning this off. What it is doing is taking a second Nikon D300
exposure immediately after the main one so it Nikon 600mm f/4
can compare for noise and remove it in-camera. f/4, 1/4000sec, ISO 400
This is good in theory, but in reality, it doubles the Left· African sunset
exposure time. Post-processing noise-reduction Nikon D3
software is so good these days that there really is Nikon 200 -400mm f/4 @ 350mm
no need for in-camera noise reduction anyway. » f/14, 1/ 250sec, ISO 1600
» The Angel ofThe North picture
was taken with a bulb exposure of
several minutes, where I left on the
Long Exposure Noise Reduction.
Considering that I took a number
of pictures with a similar shutter
speed, and each picture doubled
up for noise-removal, it was a long
time to sit around at midnight in
Gateshead with a number of distinctly
unsavoury characters for company.
I have not used the Long Exposure
Noise Reduction feature since.
Always shoot in RAW unless you
have very good reason not to. Unless
you are a press or sports photographer
who needs to t ransmit your pictures
remotely from the field, jpeg f iles
are too inflexible. You will be able
to eke out much more tonal detail
from RAW images and will have
more latitude for adjustments.
For white balance, you may well
122 · LPM
fi nd it more pleasing to warm up the
colour temperature by putting the
camera on "cloudyn or even "shade"
if auto white balance is cooling
the colours down. This depends
on how warm the colours are in
the scene, but if you shoot in RAW
you can adj ust this later without
quality loss in post processing.
So, what about wildlife? Wildlife
has a rather awkward habit of being
more active at these times of day
anyway. If you are lucky enough to get
an amazing sky behind your wildlife,
it can make a stunning picture.
Actually, there is a big advantage
in photographing wildlife at dawn
and dusk in late autumn, winter and
early spring: the angle of the sun is
much shallower compared with that
in summer. The sun never gets as high
in the sky and therefore the light has
to t ravel through more atmosphere.
This extends the golden "hour" to
several hours in the depths of winter
and means you do not have to get
up so absurdly early. The lovely low
angled light also emphasises the
three dimensional form and texture of
your subj ect compared with shooting
with the sun higher in the sky.
Finally, whilst you probably do not
think of sunrise and sunset landscape
photography as act ion photography,
it is surprising how quickly the sun
moves through the sky. You may
have minutes, or, in extreme cases,
seconds to take the perfect picture.
To avoid last minute panics, it is
a really good idea to investigate the
location of the shoot beforehand
at another time of day. Work out
where you are going to be, check
the time of sunrise or sunset, and
make sure you are there in advance
with the camera set up and ready. +
Kaleel Zibe
Kaleel is a professional
wild life photographer,
writer and photo
workshop I safari tutor.
Workshops and safari s
are run w ith fellow
photographer, Alan Hewitt and BBC
Rad io 4's 'Living World' presenter, Trai
Anfield at Hawk's Head Photography.
Kaleel's book, "Wildlife of the Farne
Islands• is available o n Amazon and
via the web site.
www.kafeefzibe.com
Angel of the North, England
Night capture, the orange tint is street
lights ref lected off clouds
NikonD3
Nikon 14-24mm f/ 2.8 @ 14mm
f/22, 241sec, ISO 200